April 25, 2011
When will iBooks really arrive?
by Melville House
So, 2015 is not that far away. And if predictions are to be believed, half of all books sold by then will be of the “e” variety. Everyone’s trying to bulk up their eBook offerings, ensuring that all new titles (and contracts with authors) include eBooks, and most publishers are dipping into their backlist feverishly trying to turn these books into eBooks.
Amazon, of course, is the presumed leader of the eBook realm (they don’t exactly report their numbers, so who really knows?). But when the iPad was launched, a lot of folks assumed Apple would be able to challenge Amazon’s dominance in this arena like no one else could. And yet, according to Piper Jaffray, when the iPad 2 went on sale this year, 24% of those in line owned Kindles versus 13% of iPad buyers the year before. Which poses the question: if Apple had really intended for the iPad to put pressure on Amazon, shouldn’t those numbers be flipped? The iPad, it would seem, is not exactly threatening the Kindle at all.
So it must sting that they haven’t made a little more progress with e-Books through iBooks by now. Which may be why, out of all the numbers they tout in their quarterly reports, they’re cagey about iBook sales. Nate Hoffelder had an excellent post on this for eBookNewser that outlined this situation:
When the 100 million download were mentioned at the iPad2 launch it referred to the entire year’s worth of downloads since iBooks was launched. When it was mentioned again during the call, there was no time frame attached. It’s possible but it doesn’t seem likely that iBooks had another 100 million downloads in the most recent quarter. If this were true, Apple would have boasted about it in the press release.
I’ve heard back from Apple, and the vague reference is all the information it will provide. Now, that is interesting. Here we have a company that regularly gives out detailed info – pretty much boasting about its accomplishments. But it won’t talk about iBooks.
I wouldn’t have cared if Amazon, Sony, or B&N had refused to share, but Apple is different. No one else gives details on how many devices or eBooks have been sold; Apple boasts. And when it doesn’t, you have to wonder what it is hiding.
I can only conclude that iBooks sales are so bad that Apple doesn’t want to tell me the real numbers.
For now anyway. The tech news leaks from the last couple of weeks may be telling us more about Apple’s long-term strategy to improve these numbers and how it plans to push its way to the top. When Apple watcher Patently Apple uncovered a patent application by Apple for a new dual display that would use both LCD and e-ink technology, iBooks was not really mentioned as an impetus for the new direction in displays. But it’s hard to ignore the implications here. Of the many reasons people have flocked to the Kindle and other e-readers is that the e-ink display is not backlit. E-ink is more akin to the reading experience of looking at the printed page of a real book. And as anyone who works on a computer for a living will tell you, it’s nice being able to read from a screen that’s not blaring at you if you plan to dig in with a good book.
Perhaps it was always Apple’s strategy to adapt the iPad and integrate e-ink at a more deliberate pace. Since they already had success with the iPhone–and it was that operating system that would run the iPad–there was no reason to put everything they might eventually want in a tablet if the product category had a history of failure. Apple tends to update hardware incrementally (they certainly didn’t have to wait to add a camera to the iPad until this year, but why spend all that money on cameras if no one buys the damn thing?), so it makes sense that the 3rd generation iPad will be jockeying harder for those all those eBooks set to be sold by 2015.
Come next year, those iBooks number might not be so vague anymore.
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12 Comments
Perhaps this is what’s behind Apple’s June 30 enforcement deadline? Perhaps Apple plans to make it so unprofitable to have an ereader app on the iPad that retailers pull their apps and ereaders will be forced to use iBooks if they want to read on their iPads? In other words, if iBooks can’t compete on a level playing field, tilt the field.
Perhaps this is what’s behind Apple’s June 30 enforcement deadline? Perhaps Apple plans to make it so unprofitable to have an ereader app on the iPad that retailers pull their apps and ereaders will be forced to use iBooks if they want to read on their iPads? In other words, if iBooks can’t compete on a level playing field, tilt the field.
I suspect the larger reason is that Apple has very little interest in books at all. It’s quite clear they’ve devoted very few resources to it, compared to what they put into other areas. It’s really only folks in the book business who spend much time thinking about what Apple is doing in the books area. The most attention they ever paid to books was for about 6 weeks when launching the iPad 1, and it seems as if the reason was that they needed a story to tell then about why the Ipad wasn’t just an oversized iPod Touch—we forget how skeptical folks were back then of the tablet. The form factor of books and magazines was convenient in that regard. But now that the iPad has exceeded even Apple’s expectation, they don’t really need to bother. So they’re vague about books because they’ve bigger fish to fry…
I suspect the larger reason is that Apple has very little interest in books at all. It’s quite clear they’ve devoted very few resources to it, compared to what they put into other areas. It’s really only folks in the book business who spend much time thinking about what Apple is doing in the books area. The most attention they ever paid to books was for about 6 weeks when launching the iPad 1, and it seems as if the reason was that they needed a story to tell then about why the Ipad wasn’t just an oversized iPod Touch—we forget how skeptical folks were back then of the tablet. The form factor of books and magazines was convenient in that regard. But now that the iPad has exceeded even Apple’s expectation, they don’t really need to bother. So they’re vague about books because they’ve bigger fish to fry…
I suspect the larger reason is that Apple has very little interest in books at all. It’s quite clear they’ve devoted very few resources to it, compared to what they put into other areas. It’s really only folks in the book business who spend much time thinking about what Apple is doing in the books area. The most attention they ever paid to books was for about 6 weeks when launching the iPad 1, and it seems as if the reason was that they needed a story to tell then about why the Ipad wasn’t just an oversized iPod Touch—we forget how skeptical folks were back then of the tablet. The form factor of books and magazines was convenient in that regard. But now that the iPad has exceeded even Apple’s expectation, they don’t really need to bother. So they’re vague about books because they’ve bigger fish to fry…
I suspect the larger reason is that Apple has very little interest in books at all. It’s quite clear they’ve devoted very few resources to it, compared to what they put into other areas. It’s really only folks in the book business who spend much time thinking about what Apple is doing in the books area. The most attention they ever paid to books was for about 6 weeks when launching the iPad 1, and it seems as if the reason was that they needed a story to tell then about why the Ipad wasn’t just an oversized iPod Touch—we forget how skeptical folks were back then of the tablet. The form factor of books and magazines was convenient in that regard. But now that the iPad has exceeded even Apple’s expectation, they don’t really need to bother. So they’re vague about books because they’ve bigger fish to fry…
I don’t think Apple will make any greater strides on eBooks until they create a desktop reader and integrate iBooks with iTunes. Allowing the casual browser to find new and interesting titles the way they do for apps and other media.
I’d only go to iBooks if I already knew what I was looking for and by that point there are too many other places to get it.
I don’t think Apple will make any greater strides on eBooks until they create a desktop reader and integrate iBooks with iTunes. Allowing the casual browser to find new and interesting titles the way they do for apps and other media.
I’d only go to iBooks if I already knew what I was looking for and by that point there are too many other places to get it.
I continue to find Apple’s decisions regarding books completely baffling. The lack of decent search and desktop integration is borderline insane. I’m starting to wonder if things are deliberately hard to find so no one will realize how inferior their selection is to Amazon (and even Barnes & Noble). The only thing Apple is expending any energy on is playing with the specs for EPUB (allowing for full-page layout, for example). That’s all well and good, but totally meaningless as long as search is so terrible.
I continue to find Apple’s decisions regarding books completely baffling. The lack of decent search and desktop integration is borderline insane. I’m starting to wonder if things are deliberately hard to find so no one will realize how inferior their selection is to Amazon (and even Barnes & Noble). The only thing Apple is expending any energy on is playing with the specs for EPUB (allowing for full-page layout, for example). That’s all well and good, but totally meaningless as long as search is so terrible.
Richard Nash is right. Apple doesn’t seem to be that interested in selling ebooks. That’s bad, because Amazon needs competition to keep them from bullying. Apple’s half-hearted efforts are taking up attention that might be better devoted to a product that would give the Kindle competition, say the Nook.
And I fear the window for that competitor is rapidly closing. If it isn’t the Nook, then who will it be? Who wants to enter a market where they need a million-product inventory of ebooks to match Amazon and where they’ve got to compete with a well-designed product that has enough economy of scale it can sell for $119?
Richard Nash is right. Apple doesn’t seem to be that interested in selling ebooks. That’s bad, because Amazon needs competition to keep them from bullying. Apple’s half-hearted efforts are taking up attention that might be better devoted to a product that would give the Kindle competition, say the Nook.
And I fear the window for that competitor is rapidly closing. If it isn’t the Nook, then who will it be? Who wants to enter a market where they need a million-product inventory of ebooks to match Amazon and where they’ve got to compete with a well-designed product that has enough economy of scale it can sell for $119?